He called a person he had talked to on the phone and communicated with on line but had never even met, his GIRLFRIEND????? He talked about her in public, to the media, and told the honchos at Notre Dame that someone he had never met in person, or had held hands with, or had kissed, was HIS GIRLFRIEND????

Not even football players can be this stupid and clueless, can they? Something’s waaay rotten in Denmark, people. His story stinks to high heaven. She’s his “girlfriend” whose convenient death “inspired” him to play better, and she “died” with perfect timing so he didn’t need to introduce her to anyone. He sent no flowers and didn’t go to the “funeral”? You telling me Te’o didn’t have a bunch of real live girlfriends on campus sniffing around a future NFL-er– and if not, why not? Did Te’o need a fictitious far away frrom campus girl to hide or mask something like maybe he’s gay? (not saying he is, mind you, just an example).

Any team considering drafting him should seriously think twice, and demand a thorough medical and mental evaluation of him before they do. Can a football player his age be already exhibiting signs of that brain injury that messed up Dave Duerson and Junior Seau and led to them taking their lives?

Back in my day an editor might say but always: “Hey, this story is too good to be true. Check it out.”

Then reporting would be done.

Not so much these days what with the arbiters of truth and justice too busy telling the proles to shut up.

It is astonishing that with the vast resources of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, ESPN, the NYT, the WaPo, Reuters and even Fox that no one could be bothered to track down the family of the girlfriend for a weeper feature about a Heisman candidate.

Stanford never had any record of anyone by the name Lennay Kekua attending the university. One of the original stories about Te’o and Kekua came in the Nov. 28, 2009 edition of the South Bend Tribune, which identified Kekua as a Stanford student.

Riiiight. He talked about her to the South Bend media in 2009, but by the time of her “death” in fall 2012 (that’s three years for you non-math majors and 21 dog years) Te’o had still not managed to meet up, you know, like in person with his “girlfriend”.

I’m just guessing here, but, there is too much willingness to think he was a victim of a hoax as opposed to “he knew everything.” When he goes on TV and says he spends every night with her on the phone, when he states to reporters that he met her at the Stanford game, when she has a Facebook page that has a picture of “her” that cannot be the same girl he met at the Stanford game….

This isn’t about “watch out for who you meet on the net” but IS “he committed a fraud”….

elissa – One of my sons dated a girl who who had a few “issues.” She faked the suicide of her brother. We never could get the date or time of the funeral service from her although she was in charge of arranging it. She also couldn’t get time off work to attend the service and did not want me to send a sympathy card to her mother since the mother was so upset.

The brother was somehow miraculously resurrected sometime later and my son thankfully saw the light of day about the “issues.”

“Wow, daley. It sounds like your son (and you) dodged a bullet with that girl.”

elissa – Yep. Like most teenage boys he was focused on other things and not thinking with his big head, but I suppose that not limited to teenage boys when it comes to dealing with women. His focus improved when she was involuntarily committed for a five day psych eval.

Well someone at another blog, pointed out how the press was not interested in another ‘mystery girl friend’ except for the likes of Cahill, until Maraniss ‘discovered’ her just in time for the reelection, this summer,

So, let me get this straight…..ND knew on December 26th that this story was a hoax….and then spent the next two weeks preparing for the National Championship game sitting on this information while the MSM in sports continued to tell everyone about how this player when through the hell of his life in October…..and Te’o didn’t deny one time in any interview that the story was a hoax….

Reff – your panties are in a bunch over a 2 week delay in announcing this? Lying about meeting her at a game because he was embarrassed or ashamed that he met her online hardly seems absurd. I know a couple in their 40s that says they met at a bar because they are embarrassed they met through an online dating site.

I am shocked that people that hate ND are accusing Teo of being in on it.

JD- I did think that at first, but I don’t see how he can have met her and talked to her. There is no her. Do you think he made up the part about talking to her to hide the on-lineness of the relationship?

The difficulty here in believing that he was duped comes from his own actions….from information that says he knows the person who may be behind this….from knowing that ND puts an SID person in the room with him on interviews….that they school their players in the interview process, and part of that schooling is ethical discussions about telling the truth…..

And, now, ND has hidden the information….

He wasn’t duped….he participated…..maybe he started out just wanting to have a story….but, cancer, car accident, meeting her, talking for hours every night….all this came from his mouth….not from other people’s mouths….but, from his….

He wasn’t duped….he participated…..maybe he started out just wanting to have a story….but, cancer, car accident, meeting her, talking for hours every night….all this came from his mouth….not from other people’s mouths….but, from his….

None if this is inconsistent with him being duped in an elaborate hoax.

None of that proves anything….it only opens more questions…
….that ND chose to continue to hide, along with Te’o…

From si.com this morning….
Swarbrick says Te’o found out in December that Lennay Kekua was not real. And then … well, here is a transcript from a Jan. 3 press conference before the national championship game:

Q: Manti, how have the football‑related commotion and excitement of the past year helped you get through the turmoil you’ve faced with your grandmother and girlfriend? And how have the quiet periods been for you, given you more time to reflect? Is that a good thing or double edged?

MANTI TE’O: I think whenever you’re in football, it takes your mind off a lot of things. You know, this team is very special to me, and the guys on it have always been there for me, through the good times and the bad times. I rarely have a quiet time to myself because I always have somebody calling me, asking, do you want to go to the movies. Coach is always calling me asking me, “Are you okay? Do you need anything?” I have three roommates, Zeke, Carlo and Robby Toma, who are always yelling at each other, who’s going to play Call of Duty. I’m rarely by myself, and that’s how I like it. I’m always around my guys, always around my family.

What do we make of that? Technically, Te’o did not lie. But he did tell a lie of omission — somebody asked him about his dead girlfriend, and he declined to tell the truth: That she did not exist.

He knew it, ND knew it….and both chose to hide it…

Embarrassment? Game is more important? HIde the truth?

I think there is another option….that he simply lied, and not a lie of omission….

He talked to someone for four hours a night? Who?

He met her. Twitter links. She had an auto accident. Then she had cancer. Then she died. And, yet, now, she didn’t exist. And, the only connection that we have is his words….and when he had a reasonable opportunity to get out in front of the story, he, and the university, chose not to…

Reff – did the AZ cardinal player lie about meeting this person? Look at the coverage thisis getting today. Can you imagine dropping this the week before national championship game? When you first learned you had been duped?

It never felt like a chance meeting, although it probably appeared that way from the outside looking in.

Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te’o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes. They could have just as easily brushed past each other and into separate sunsets. Te’o had plenty to preoccupy himself that November weekend in Palo Alto, Calif., back in 2009.

…..Lennay Kekua was a Stanford student and Cardinal football fan when the two exchanged glances, handshakes and phone numbers that fateful weekend three seasons ago.

I give up.
This is a very interesting and weird situation which intrigues me. But I’m going to try to avoid commenting/speculating any further on this thread. Already the breathless news accounts in print and video are all over the map and frequently contradict each other with respect to key timeline details such as: how and when when did he come to meet “her”/when did ND know there was a problem, etc. So, who of us at this time can possibly know how much of this confusion is resulting from bad PR placement, teh crazee, purposeful bamboozlement on the part of the perpetrators (whoever that might include) –and how much of it is just “fact sloppiness” as in typical incompetence on the part of the media?

This story already seems to have elements of the Penn State cover-up to protect the school and a prized asset piece, coupled with the mystery of the stolen identity/fake on-line people from the Weiner scandal, coupled with the considerable contradictions (some would say outright lies) we saw published in both the recent Trayvon/Zimmerman case and the Sandyhook shooter’s family profile, weapons used, entry to the school, etc.

Is the fact that Te’o is a Mormon relevent in any way?

Is this story being pimped and juiced to cover up or overshadow another story somebody somewhere is fighting like mad to bury?

And then there’s Deadspin. Why them? Who tipped them off and why. Why would they be interested/invested enough in Te’o to do the digging and investigating instead of any other media outlet? Was there blackmail? Who gains? Who loses?

I’ll leave it to others to try to make sense of it all, because I can’t.

I heard the info on the Cardinal player also on Mike and Mike this morning, and have no reason to doubt that what he said was true. We need more info to carry that out to its logical ending, such as how much info he got from her, what does she look like, did he follow up with her in any way, does he know this Tuiososopo person as well (Te’o apparently does know this guy) and some other questions that this entire situation raises. So, yes, this can provide solid evidence that a conspiracy to “catfish” people is out there involving players of Hawai’ian/Samoan backgrounds.

And, it could be something else. To paraphrase you: None if this is inconsistent with him being INVOLVED in an elaborate hoax. ( I left your “if” instead of changing it to “of” for effect)

As for dropping this the week of the championship game, two thought:

First, I think that NOT breaking this story hurt Te’o in his performance in the game. I’ve never seen a player have such a bad performance after such a great season in the biggest game of his career to date. He was the exact opposite player to everything we had heard about him. He was not a leader, not a great player, a total non-factor in the game. If it is a hoax, letting Te’o get in front of it would have cleared his mind, and made him a better player that night (assuming the hoax is the truth; if not, nothing would have helped him. His embarrassment either way may have hurt him).

Second, the cover-up is always worse than the truth. How much did the team know? Did this affect the entire team? Honesty would have cleared the air, and it would have gone away. But, ND couldn’t actually tell it, could they, unless the had concrete proof that it was a hoax, which they clearly don’t. Now, they have to PRAY that it is a hoax, because they’ve thrown themselves in front of the bus that is coming to run over them and Te’o.

What makes you so sure it was simply an elaborate hoax? I mean, Te’o told a dozen different stories about things that happened between them, involving them, and continued to tell the story all the way up to the Heisman ceremony. A meeting two years ago, face to face (yet for that to make sense, the pictures on Facebook would have had to be the same woman)…four hour phone calls, where voices were exchanged (there will be evidence of phone records we haven’t been given yet, so…)….an auto accident involving a person (no one ANYWHERE bothered to check the records)….a hospital stay involving someone in cancer treatments (no one ANYWHERE bothered to look into a hospital stay and meet the girl/family/friends)….Te’o sent flowers to the funeral (what funeral?) and told people the casket was closed at exactly 9:00 AM (who told him that?)….

And, the Cardinal player who met her…..but, remember, she doesn’t exist….so, where did he meet her, and what is that story?

There are other points here to be answered, and yes, every one of them could have been faked, along with these….

Except one…

Te’o’s own words, which he kept giving, and giving, and giving, and he had several opportunities to back away from the story, yet didn’t….

Reff – I don’t know either way, never claimed to know. I dont discount the hoax like you do as we have see. At this blog the extent to which people will manufacture e tire characters a s people for no discernible reason.

The fact that she doesn’t exist in no way negates his claims that they spoke on the phone, chatted, or even met. As to airing this the day after Christmas versus now, I don’t share your outrage. If he had been duped for that time, getting answers would probably be my initial concern.

MayBee – never suggested he didn’t embellish, in fact I said I believe he did to conceal that his relationship with her was digital.

JD- yeah, I wasn’t meaning to argue with you about whether he embellished or not. I was just discovering how much he embellished. But his embellishments all made it just that much more dramatic– which got more publicity.

There was no “I didn’t see her often” or “I hadn’t visited her while she was sick”. All of the embellishments went in one direction.

I hope the questions get answered so that he can live his life in a manner to which he seems to want to….

I also know that putting your private world out there for all to see is never a good thing….

Finally, I know that all this is too personal for me, having gone through the same situation when I was 15, where I lost my girlfriend through cancer, while playing football in high school….spending nights at the hospital for several months, then going to class, staring out the window…sharing sports and school with those who had no idea, coaches asking where my head was, only having the moments of the game to keep focus, until the day I missed school and when others asked why, learned the truth of her funeral….keeping all that private was the right thing to do, to keep it away from those who didn’t need to know….and when our school went through it (my girlfriend didn’t go to my high school) with a classmate, so many of my friends understood what I felt, remembering it even to this day when we gather and remember both of them, remembering all the empty chairs….some more than others bringing back the pain….

The mistake Te’o has made is to make his private life into his public life. That is so true in this world today, what with TMZ, Deadspin, Inside Edition, US, People, the media, the need for attention, Paris, Kim, Khloe, all that….and Te’o has fallen into that trap…

Maybee hit it…maybe he embellished the story, and it got out of control, and when the fhit hit the san he couldn’t stop, which is not the worst thing, just a character flaw….

I truly hope that if this young man is the person so many say he is, that the story is just that….

So, apparently there is a thing called cat-fishing. That is indisputable. So here are the scenarios.

1. Manti was the victim of a catfish (hoax played upon him).

2. Manti made up a pretend girlfriend and led others around him to believe that she existed, only to have her die merely hours after his grandmother died. Manti was smart enough to pattern his hoax according to a known catfish scenario in the off-chance that he was outed. This was all done for publicity…Manti wasn’t happy with the amount that he already received. Manti gets wind of the fact that people are on to his hoax so he tells the University. ND is complicit with Manti’s hoax in order to save face, and also tells its own elaborate hoax to cover up Manti’s lie. Finally, to tie it all up someone in Manti’s camp gets someone from the NFL to give a statement about how he believes that Lannay actually existed.

To cyncial morons like reffer, #2 is obviously the most likely scenario.

Reffer, don’t let your anticatholicism get in the way of common sense, you dolt.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was a high school classmate of the 22-year old woman in the pictures of Lennay Marie Kekua (whose identity may be being protected) as well as being a friend of Manti Te’o.

Te’o wished Tuiasosopo a happy birthday on Twitter last June, and Tuiasosopo was an on-field guest at the November 24 Notre Dame-USC game in Los Angeles. (although his spoonser is unknown)

A Nov 23 tweet from Tuiasosopo’s deleted twitter account says he had a great night with Te’o.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said he received a phione call from a number he associated with Kekua when he was in Oralnado, and was told Kekua was not dead. This was the same voice he had heard when he thought he was speaking to Kekua. Manti was unnerved by this, he says. (after he told him?)

Swarbrick said he met with Te’o on Thursday December 27 and they hiored a firm to investigate and received a final report on Friday January 4, which is under wraps. swarbrick said he believed Te’o and his family were going to make the stiory ouyblic next week.

He says their investigators discovered online chatter where people talk about what they had accomplished.

He says the emotions and feelings Te’o had about Kekua were genuine and several meetings fell through and it was all real to Manti.

Tuiasosopo had himself been in a car accident a month before the notional car accident the notional Lennay Marie Kekua was in.

Meanwhile, Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Mauia told ESPN that he had been friends with Kekua before she met Manti and he was good friends with the family, and he described her appearance as Polynesian, tall, long hair and that she looked like a model.

There may be a real girl involved – who may have spoken to the Notre Dame athletic director – who however is not the same girl in the picture and whose name in not Lennay Marie Kekua and who is very much alive, and may not be the same person Reagan Mauia saw, if he’s telling the truth.

I would think at the minimum, Jack Swarbrick is the victime of a hoax.